Two to tango

WE MEXICANS are really incensed. We have been disrespected, as they say in the ‘hood. Oh, the effrontery!

The pinche (look it up) Gringo President Trump wants to build a wall along the border. What a slap in our faces.

And how undeserving!

We’re mad as hell, and we’re going to stop shopping at Sears, Costco and Walmart. Of course, that would only put the Mexican employees out of work, but it’s a price worth paying, shooting ourselves in the foot.

Those of you above the border cannot imagine how insulted we Mexicans are at this wall idea. Insulted, I tell you!

Here’s a post we might have titled Border Wall for Dummies. It is the entire nasty matter in a nutshell.

First, both nations are equally — well, almost — at fault. For decades now, both Democrat and Republican administrations have ignored or even tacitly encouraged the immigrant invasion over the southern border.

Second, millions of Mexicans have been sneaking into the United States, tunneling below ground, climbing over fences, flying in with tourist visas and overstaying, backpacking across the arid deserts, you name it.

Some have been my relatives.

And all are in the United States illegally, millions, building neighborhoods, packing “sanctuary cities,” creating Little Mexicos all over the place.

Finding enchiladas has never been so simple.

It finally reached a boiling point for U.S. citizens, and that’s what put Trump into the Oval Office.

Americans are divided almost equally into two camps. On the left are the people who croon Kumbaya, reject national borders entirely and sincerely believe that all peoples, with a tiny bit of effort, can live in eternal peace.

In spite of there being absolutely no historical evidence to support this conviction. Quite the contrary.

It is the addled Flower Power mindset of the 1960s that has filtered down through the generations, and still thrives among a healthy percentage of the population.

These Kumbaya crooners, ironically, are the ones rioting in the streets and punching Republicans in the name of love.

On the Great Divide’s other side are people who believe in borders, who know that a nation is a tribe with a common culture, language, religion, race, something that merits and requires protection.

Reams of historical evidence support this fact.

* * * *

TWO TO TANGO

Here in Mexico, we have a couple of notorious Gringo enclaves, particularly San Miguel de Allende and Ajijic, Jalisco.

Mexico’s government puts the number of Americans living in Mexico at around 700,000.*

It’s very probable the overwhelming majority are here with visas or — like me — have become citizens, although that’s not very common.

Most are spread out quietly all over the nation, and most mind their own business. Mexican law forbids them from political activity, and marching in the streets waving U.S. flags and demanding “rights” would be outrageous.

You know, like illegals do in the United States.

It would lead to deportation.

Mexicans mostly ignore San Miguel and think it’s a cute place to visit. However, if there were hundreds of San Miguels instead of one, it would be very different.

And it would require hundreds of San Miguels and Ajijics across Mexico to be comparable to what now exists in the United States, to create an equivalency.

If there were hundreds of San Miguels full of Gringos here illegally, refusing to learn Spanish, opening little businesses selling grits, ham and red-eye gravy, there would be a national outcry. We would be apoplectic!

We would go postal!

Then the shoe would be on the other foot, and Mexicans might understand President Trump’s historic trip to the White House with a tad more clarity.

No nation really wants to be multicultural. Just up to a point, it’s interesting. After that, it gets nasty.

(No nation on earth apart from the white populations of North America and Western Europe embraces multiculturalism. Just those lands where hippies reigned in the 1960s. The Soviets shielded Eastern Europe from Flower Power.)

Mexico, in cahoots with the Democrat and Republican political establishments, brought us Trump.

It takes two to tango.

* * * *

* You’ll often read that one million Americans live in Mexico. This is a myth that has existed since before I moved south 17 years ago. I find the official 700,000 number a little difficult to believe, but perhaps it includes part-timers. And perhaps I misread, and it includes all foreigners, not just Gringos.

(Note: I saw on Twitter this morning that our President Peña Nieto has announced a new program to support and facilitate continuing education for young Mexicans who return from the United States. More positive effects from Trump.

(Furthermore, about 60 percent of Mexico’s exports currently go to the United States. Mexico recently announced it will begin widening its trade with other nations. This diversification is a positive thing, bought to us by Trump. )

20 thoughts on “Two to tango”

Gordie/Clete: For most of its history, the United States shared a common culture for the most part. The negative effects of slavery remain today, worsening. The more recent failure to control the southern border has only added another troublesome element to the mix.

Living where I do, central Texas, we have many, many of Mexican ancestry whose families became fully assimilated decades ago. Some are for the wall, some are conflicted. Many recent immigrants came here because of the threat from narco cartels and they were afraid enough to uproot, bring money and start or buy existing businesses. I think many have second homes hereabouts, secondary to their Mexican homes. Those with green cards who haven’t applied for permanent residency might be in trouble if they decide to do that now. I don’t know.
In general our culture has embraced its Mexican-American history and we live peaceably with one another. I do know of gringos who live close to the border on acres of farmland who are well armed because their fear is of a home invasion and they’d like to see more secure protection from that happening by border crossing lawbreakers. I’ve also heard that 80% of the illegals coming across that border are not Mexican. That I wouldn’t doubt.

Carole: If people even have green cards, they are doing it legally, and good for them. As for uprooting due to narco cartels, going to the U.S. is not the only safe option. There are plenty of places in Mexico, most of Mexico, actually, where cartels are simply not a factor.

This will not end well. Eventually, someone will say “Es ist Zeit, die Öfen anzuzünden.” Who will go into to it is yet undecided.
Notice the up raised index finger. It is a Muslim sign. How many times have we seen Obama make this sign?

Señor Gill: Sad what’s happening in Europe. But I prefer to stick to the topic at hand, which is the dual responsibility of Mexico and American political elites for the current hubbub surrounding the Trump presidency.

Seven hundred thousand gringos in Mexico?!?! Ridiculous. Try sixty thousand. Steve Cotton did a story on this a while ago, and this is what he found:

The data used in the study is from 2009 — before the new visa system was put in place. Residents are defined as anyone holding either an Inmigrante visa (FM2) or a No Inmigrante visa (FM3). The numbers are further refined to eliminate duplicate counts.

The result? There were 262,672 foreigners living in Mexico on 31 October 2009 — most of them (173,607) from the Americas.

The national breakdown is even more interesting.
USA: 59,996 (22.6%)
Spain: 18,551 (7.1%)
Argentina: 15,232 (5.8%)
Colombia: 14,610 (5.6%)
Canada: 10,869 (4.1%)
I suppose none of those numbers are very surprising. The Canadian number sees low from our perspective in Melaque — where the winter tourist population from Canada seems to be 80 to 85% of the total foreigners. But that simply underlines the study’s methodology. Tourists are not residents.

I realize the study is old, but the number of gringos hasn’t increased by a factor of eleven in 7 years. (I’ll also add that I found, downloaded, and read the original document in Spanish, so Steve is correct.)

And yes, Mexico’s incompetent politicians seem to be foregoing any kind of negotiation in favor of simply whining about “respect.” This seems to be a stunningly ineffective strategy.

Frankly, Mexico shouldn’t give two hoots about a wall; paying is the real issue here.

Saludos,

Kim G
Redding, CAWhere we have found it notably difficult to collect debts in México.

Kim: The 700,000 figure seems way overboard to me too, but I have read two Mexican government reports of late that give that figure. Don’t ask me where it was because I did not save them. I just happened upon them. If there are that many, I sure wonder where they are keeping themselves. Sure ain’t out in plain view.

And, of course, the million myth lives on and on. You see it often online.

You made me chuckle with that line about its being difficult to collect debts down here. That’s a problem, big-time. Loaning cash to the locals, more often than not, is akin to taking a match to it. You usually can kiss it goodbye. To quote Nancy Reagan: Just say no.

Ms. de Bois: You are hardly the first to notice this blatant irony. Yes, we are walled up the kazoo. And we only advocate multiculturalism above the border where it’s to our advantage. We sure don’t give a hoot about it down here.